Centenarians getting more common

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Juanita Owens celebrates her 106th birthday surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren at Atria Senior Living in Irvine. She was born in Oklahoma in 1906 when it was still a territory, according to her granddaughter Kathy Buttrey, second from right.

Viola Smith, who turns 100 0n November 29, demonstrates her drumming technique. She was a drummer in an all-girl orchestra as a child and traveled with the Band Box Revue doing vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit. Smith organized the band for the Major Bowes Show, a forerunner of the TV Gong show. Woody Herman offered her a job.

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Juanita Owens celebrates her 106th birthday surrounded by grandchildren and great-grandchildren at Atria Senior Living in Irvine. She was born in Oklahoma in 1906 when it was still a territory, according to her granddaughter Kathy Buttrey, second from right.

Viola Smith, an avid drummer will turn 100 on the 29th, was part of an all-girl orchestra as a child. She traveled with the Band Box Revue doing vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit. She organized the band for the Major Bowes Show, a forerunner of the TV Gong show. She is now living in Costa Mesa.

At the recent Senior Prom sponsored by Age Well Senior Services, Marine veteran Loretta L. Petersen of Costa Mesa won the queen's crown at 90 and Navy veteran Leonard Quick, 98, of Laguna Woods was named king. At an event honoring veterans, they were the oldest attending.

Costa Mesa resident Viola Smith, an avid drummer, will turn 100 on November 29th. She was part of an all-girl orchestra as a child. She traveled with the Band Box Revue doing vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit.

Viola Smith, who will turn 100 on November 29th, poses for a photo at Piecemakers in Costa Mesa. She was a drummer in an all-girl orchestra as a child. She traveled with the Band Box Revue doing vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit. She organized the band for the Major Bowes Show, a forerunner of the TV Gong show. Woody Herman offered her a job.

Juanita Owens, who was born in 1906, crossed the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas in a covered wagon when she was four years old and, at 90, she went jet skiing in the Colorado River.

Juantia Owens, 106, shares a moment with her grandson Ron Barrett during her birthday celebration in Irvine.

Juanita Owens shares a laugh with her granddaughter-in-law Paige Barrett during her birthday celebration in Irvine. She could hardly believe her age -- 106.

Costa Mesa resident Viola Smith, an avid drummer, demonstrates her technique. She will turn 100 on November 29th. She was part of an all-girl orchestra as a child.

Juanita Owens reads one of her birthday cards with the help of her great-grandchildren Reagan and Megan Barrett.

Costa Mesa resident Viola Smith, an avid drummer, will turn 100 on November 29th. She was part of an all-girl orchestra as a child. She traveled with the Band Box Revue doing vaudeville on the Orpheum circuit.

Juanita Owens celebrates her 106th birthday surrounded by grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren at Atria Senior Living in Irvine. She was born in Oklahoma in 1906 when it was still a territory, according to her granddaughter Kathy Buttrey, second from right.

I don’t smoke. I eat only a few sweets. I exercise three times a week.

But according to the livingto100.com age calculator designed by Dr. Thomas Perls, head of the centenarian study at Boston University, I can expect to live to be 97.

Which is less than Viola Smith and a lot less than Juanita Owens.

The number of centenarians – now estimated to reach 834,000 by 2050 – is growing rapidly in the U.S. Perls credits important health breakthroughs, such as clean water supplies, education and vaccinations, with making the difference.

Smith is content to celebrate 100 years Nov. 29 and looks forward to “as many as I can jam into my life,” she says.

Smith was one of eight girls born to a family where the father ran a dance hall. Each girl was taught an instrument – Viola got the drums – and by the time she was 12, they were traveling the RKO circuit as the Smith Sisters.

She never stopped playing. On the Keith-Orpheum circuit, she shared the bill with the Andrews Sisters. Her sisters married and moved on, but Viola stayed with her drums, creating an orchestra for the Major Bowes radio show, an amateur talent show.

Woody Herman offered her a job as a featured act in his Thundering Herd, but she turned him down to stay with the Coquettes, a band she organized with her sister, Mildred.

“It was my life,” she said. “I played until I was 63. I played on the ‘Hour of Charm’ on the radio and then I was on Broadway for four years. But that was before your time.”

Try me, I say to Viola. Broadway and I got along very well when my mother worked in New York City in the late 1960s and 70s.

She tells me she opened on Broadway in 1966, playing for four years as the drummer with the “Kit Kat Band,” part of the original production of “Cabaret.”

And I tell her I saw that show. On Broadway. With Joel Grey.

Viola shrieks with delight. “You heard me at my best!” she shouts.

She played more than the average 12 drums in a set, she says. She added tom toms on her right and left side, the only drummer who did that.

After retiring, she traveled. Travels brought her to California and to the home of a cousin, Marie Kosinsinsky. Now she lives with her cousin and other women as part of the Piecemakers group, a religious commune.

And she volunteers about 10 hours a week in the Piecemakers store in Costa Mesa.

“I feel about the same as when I was 70,” Smith says. “Except I walk slower and have to be more careful so I don’t fall.”

That’s what a centenarian sounds like.

Owens, who just celebrated her 106th birthday, is a rarity today and probably in the future.

Perls said there is little change in the number of “supercentenarians” – those who live more than 100 years like Owens. He concludes that our bodies today are designed to give out after 90-odd years.

Guess I shouldn’t complain about hitting 97.

Owens now lives at Atria Woodbridge, an assisted-living home in Irvine. But until three years ago, she was a pretty independent lady, living on her own with family members in Westminster.

“She did her own laundry,” says granddaughter Kathi Buttrey, 62. “She actually did quite well until she was 100 and she fell and broke her hip and started using a walker. That was hard on her – using a walker.”

Owens has outlived all her children, a huge sadness in her life. Buttrey believes the death of the last of her four children in 2011 led to her memory decline. “She just doesn’t care the same way,” Buttrey said.

Unless it’s church work.

Every Sunday Owens’ granddaughter takes her to West Anaheim Church of Christ, where her great-grandson, Don Buttrey, is minister.

At the church, Owens spends most of her time in the nursery.

“I love babies,” she tells me. “Babies are so beautiful!”

But maybe hitting 100 doesn’t always matter.

At the recent Senior Prom sponsored by Age Well Senior Services, Loretta L. Petersen of Costa Mesa won the queen’s crown at 90 and Leonard Quick, 98, of Laguna Woods, was named king. At an event honoring veterans, they were the oldest attending.

Both also were dancing during the evening, proving that age never loses its rhythm – or forgets how to keep the beat.